A blog to showcase the writing of members of the group Facebook Storytellers. This group is a collection of my facebook friends who write original and in most cases unpublished stories. All stories however are copyrighted and cannot be reproduced anywhere without the consent, in writing, of the writer of said stories.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Dinalaw By Irene Riot

"Ask how many kids you and Nic are going to have! You guys will have such cute babies!"

The glass circled across the ouigee board, spelling out the answers to their future.

Text ring. "SWEETY, IT'S LIKE REALLY LATE". It was Marese's mother wondering if she needed to take her child home.

Text back, "WE'RE ON OUR WAY NOW. I WILL BE A WHILE BECAUSE
MICHALEA'S MOM HAS TO DRIVE EVERYON ELSE HOME FIRST. I'LL TEXT YOU WHEN I
AM ON MY WAY". Send.

"I LOVE YOU, MOMMY". Send.

12:30am. Footsteps pound on the porch. Tess could hear the muffled
goodbyes from inside. "Gosh, they're so freakin' dramatic," Tess thought
to herself.

Marese burst in. "Hey, hey, Momma!" Plopping herself on the couch,
kicking off her boots, Marese turned on the TV. Another one of her
reality shows. "So, how was your day? Facebooking again? You should go
out more."

"Good, no and what I do with my time ain't none of your business"

Mother and daughter smiled at each other. Packing up her laptop, "I'm going to my room. I can't write here".

"Sorry, Mommy. Can we have breakfast together before you go to work tomorrow?"

"Sure. Make sure you take everything to your room later. Please don't
fall asleep in the living room with the TV on. Then I can't sleep"

"Okay!"

"Don't use that tone with me!"

"Sorry. Goodnight!"

Sarcastic bitch. She's becoming so much like her mother!

Tess settled herself into bed. Marese retired to her own room as
well. Quiet. 1am-ish. It wasn't long before Tess drifted off to sleep.

"Welcome to Progressive! We are so proud you decided to join us! We are so proud! We are so proud! We are so proud of you!"

Tess found herself in the commercial she had seen on TV only this
time the Progressive lady was Asian with black hair, China white skin
and strawberry red lips. There were rows and rows of "policies” to
choose from. It was bright in this dream but things started to darken as
she walked down one of the rows.

Ending up in her room, asleep yet Tess was completely aware of her
surroundings. Eyes closed yet she could see everything in her room. The
jeans she wore the other day, her heels and purses scattered. There was a
tapping on her window. Floating towards the window, the blinds opened
themselves. There was a man outside. He was smiling.

“Oh, shit!” Tess didn’t have a hard time snapping out of this dream.
Applying more oil to her forehead, Tess went back to sleep, clutching
her talisman.

“…..and the ouigee board said I was going to marry some guy named
Nicolas and were are going to have two kids. Mommy, if I brought a
boyfriend home, would you make fun of him?”

“Sure thing, Sweety. I’d laugh in his ugly face and call him stupid”

“Mom! But what if I brought home the perfect guy?”

“Sweety, you could bring home Jesus and tell me he’s going to marry you. He still wouldn’t be good enough. It’s a parent thing.”

“So you guys played ouigee?” The hairs on Tess’ skin stood. No
playing ouigee in the house or else the spirit you call will remain.

“We played at Michaela’s house” Marese reasoned out.

Tess was convinced a spirit followed Marese home. “I had this really weird dream but never mind. Are you ready to order?”

“Wendy is a 23 year old female with no prior psychiatric history
admitted on a temporary detention order due to acute onset of psychosis.
Patient is not able to offer any coherent information but family notice
she has been increasingly paranoid, talking to people who are not
there. Parents say patient has been using K2 and bath salts” the report
read.

Diagnosis: Young, dumb and stupid.

Mouth open, blank stare, Wendy sat in front of Tess. Wendy mumbled incoherently as her gaze was fixed on a spot behind Tess.

“Ok, I’ll tell her” Wendy said.

“Excuse me?”

“He said he is proud of you. He came to visit you last night”

“Who?”

“El Pedeo”

“I’m sorry?”

“Tay-tay, he said to for me to tell you that Tay-tay is proud of you”

Oh! Tatay! Elpidio! It was the American twang that threw Tess off.
Elpidio was the name of her grandfather. As a child, she called him
Tatay. Tatay meant father. He was her mother’s father.

Ringing the nurse’ station, “Can I have someone come help Wendy to her room?”

“He also said not to worry about your mom. She is fine. She loves you and misses you very much.”